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As noted in the last post, concern about American “preparedness” after the First World War started led to a variety of government action. One was the formation of the Council of National Defense, which was to coordinate industries and resources “for the national security and welfare.”
Although created in August 1916, the Council wasn’t fully organized until March 3, 1917. On April 2, President Wilson went before Congress and asked it to declare war on Germany to “make the world safe for democracy.” A week later, the Secretary of War, acting as chair of the Council of National Defense, asked the states to create their own councils of defense “with broad powers” to cooperate with the national council. As a result, South Dakota Gov. Peter Norbeck appointed a State Council of Defense, which met for the first time on May 7, 1917. Not only did the Council itself get organized, it appointed a chairman for each county and asked them to immediately create county councils of defense.
As the report prepared by the Council a year or two after the war observed, “There was no law creating a Council, neither had this body any vested authority from legislative enactments. It had no funds with which to operate.” The Council spent much of 1917 on items related to food production, fuel conservation, the workforce, organizing a “Home Guard of the State of South Dakota” for military training, and Liberty Loan bond campaigns. The Council funded its activities by borrowing $200 each from 25 banks in the state in September 1917.
Full legal authority and funding didn’t come the Legislature until April 2, 1918, when a bill creating and enabling a State Council of Defense went into effect. In addition to appropriating $20,000 (approximately $310,000 today), the bill gave the Council wide-ranging power:
During the continuance of a state of war existing between the United States and any foreign nation, such Council shall have the power to do all acts and things not inconsistent with the Constitution or laws of the State of South Dakota, or of the United States, which are necessary or proper for the public safety and for the protection of life and public property, or private property of a character as in the judgment of the Council requires protection[.]
The legislation also specifically authorized the Council to take many other steps by majority vote, including:
- “require a complete registration of the citizens of the state, or of any class of such citizens, at such time or times as it deems expedient.”
- make “orders and rules necessary” to carry out its function as long as they were published in two newspapers of general circulation at least five days before going into effect. Violating, refusing or failing to obey any orders or rules would subject a person to a county jail term of up to a year and/or a fine of up to $1,000 (equivalent to more than $15,000 today).
- require any person to appear before it to be examined under oath “as to any information within the knowledge of such person” and to produce “any writings or documents under his control[.]”
- inquire into the performance of any public official and advise the Governor to remove them from office if the Council believed the public interest requires it.
This is not a comprehensive list of the Council’s authority. And, notably, the act contained nothing requiring the Council’s orders or rules be reviewed or approved at any time by any other entity or official. The only restriction was that its actions be consistent with the federal and state Constitution or laws. I’ll begin exploring what the Council thought was consistent with constitutional rights in the next post.
And in every financial drive many a close-fisted man has opened up his purse strings, owing to the persuasion of the “women folks.”
Foreword, Report of the South Dakota State Council of Defense
When assailed or even criticized by others, we Americans proudly trumpet the rights granted us by the Constitution. One of the most explicit examples in recent history was George W. Bush’s speech to Congress following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Speaking of terrorist groups, Bush said, “They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.” It became a plentiful used theme over the balance of that decade.
Yet in what are perceived as times of crisis, history demonstrates we will quickly jettison those very same freedoms. We could go from the irony of Bush’s statement given what his and Obama’s administration have done in the last 14 years back to the Sedition Act of 1798, which made it illegal to write, utter or publish “any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States.” But the ongoing commemoration of the centenary of World War I has led me to a variety of books about the war and that period. One of the things I’ve noticed was some of the steps various states, including South Dakota, took with barely a second thought.
This is essentially an introductory post to several on that subject but, as is often the case, some framework is necessary. For the upcoming posts, the main backdrop is, of course, World War I but the narrower focus begins with something called the Council of National Defense.
Following the European outbreak of WWI, some expressed concern about America’s military “preparedness.” As a result, the National Defense Act of 1916 provided for an expanded Army, National Guard, and officer’s training programs. It also created a Council of National Defense consisting of the secretaries of War, the Navy, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor with an Advisory Committee of seven industry leaders appointed by President Wilson. The Council was tasked with the “coordination of industries and resources for the national security and welfare.” Although the Defense Act was passed on August 29, 1916, the Council wasn’t fully organized until March 3, 1917, just a month before the U.S. entered the war.
The creation of this Council started South Dakota on a path to Bill of Rights concerns. How we got there from national coordination of industries and resources starts with the next post.
The Council on National Defense has been created because the Congress has realized that the country is best prepared for war when thoroughly prepared for peace.
Woodrow Wilson, October 11, 1916
 Bulletin Board
- Next week brings the first couple installments in a series of posts on World War I in South Dakota
- Today is National Pet Day (we have to wait until August for National Dog Day)
Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- An Atheist Considers God’s Plan (“If someone hides behind one of these veils to help them make it through, so be it. It might be nonsense, but that’s absolutely no reason to belittle or insult someone wrestling with deep anguish, or to feel personally betrayed by their approach.”)
Unique Crime of the Week
Bookish Linkage
Nonbookish Linkage
All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers, is contained in the dog.
Franz Kafka, “Investigations of a Dog,” The Complete Stories
Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
Blog Headline of the Week
Bookish Linkage
Nonbookish Linkage
A human who is given an intricate problem will spend all day trying to solve it, but a canine will have the sense to give up and do something else instead.
Corey Ford, The Trickiest Thing in Feathers
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what sticks in our minds from childhood. As I look back, I can’t figure out why the announcement of telephone number changes in the early ’60s stays with me.
Anyone who’s watched a 1950s or early 1960s movie knows telephone numbers then wasn’t just a series of digits. Instead, they were something like KLondike 5-1234 or MUrray 5-9974. This was what was called the exchange name system, where a word represented the first two letters of a 7 digit telephone number. Thus, KLondike meant the first two numbers of the telephone numbers was 55 while they were 68 for MUrray. “KLondike 5” was what you heard most in movies as it was a fictitious exchange the phone companies reserved for Hollywood, radio and television. Full words were used as a memory tool for customers and because they were easier for switchboard operators to understand.
The number of telephones in households exploded in post-World War II America so the Bell System (good old monopolist “Ma Bell”) wanted to make sure nothing would stem the growth. As a result, it began switching to an all-number system which, with area codes, would allow for prodigious expansion. That’s where my memory comes in.
Evidently, Ma Bell thought a good way to get the message about the change out was with kids. The Catholic grade school I attended had a mass convocation where telephone company reps made a presentation. I can’t remember the year but can still see myself sitting in the gym and being told our local prefix would no longer be “TUrner 6” but 886. At the time, you could call someone else in town by dialing just the last four or five numbers (again, memory fails), After the forthcoming change was explained to us, we were told to go home and tell our parents about it and give them some material the phone company handed out.
Not everybody viewed this as change for the better. In 1962, the Anti-Digit Dialing League was formed in San Francisco to oppose “creeping numeralism.” In a pamphlet it distributed, the ADDL said the all number system “places an added burden upon people by requiring them to fulfill the needs dictated by accounting machines and computers.” Yet even though the ADDL was gone by 1964, names continued to be used in cities such as New York, where it was 1978 before the city was entirely all number calling, and Philadelphia, which had named exchanges in the telephone book as late as 1983.
The fact I remember the grade school convocation suggests this was a big deal for me too. I speculate that I thought having to dial 886 for every local call was evidence of how metropolitan my town (population less than 15,000) was. But given that I don’t recall any other grade school convocation, it seems odd that this stands out.
I don’t answer the phone. I get the feeling whenever I do that there will be someone on the other end.
Fred Couples
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